'Operation Doylestown’ To Close Part Of State Street This Weekend

DOYLESTOWN, PA — A portion of East State Street in downtown Doylestown will be closed to traffic from 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday for the borough’s Operation Doylestown program to support businesses and restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic.

East State Street will be a pedestrian-only zone between Pine and Main streets each night to allow for additional outdoor seating and shopping. It also gives residents a chance to have “the rare experience to walk down historic Doylestown streets, free of vehicles,” according to organizers.

The borough launched its Operation Doylestown program in June 2020 as a “lifeline” for restaurants and businesses struggling to make ends meet during the first few months of the pandemic, with capacity limits and increased restrictions on indoor dining, Borough Manager John Davis told Patch.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Davis said of the program.

Borough officials spent much of the winter honing plans to improve the program in 2021, “with the idea to do them much more frequently,” Davis said. Since April, the borough has been closing roads on a rotating basis each weekend to support businesses.

Davis said it has been “a challenge” to plan and execute, but “it’s worked out really well” over the past four months, with officials receiving “nothing but appreciation” from local business owners and restaurateurs.

Despite the success, Operation Doylestown is “winding down,” with no street closures planned after Aug. 28, Davis said. The borough lost some legal authority to allow businesses to ignore regulations after state lawmakers voted in June to end Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus disaster declaration.

But Doylestown officials are working with local business owners and the borough council to continue some aspects of Operation Doylestown next year, like expanded outdoor dining, sidewalk sales and pedestrian-only zones, Davis said.

Residents can expect to “see some semblance of Operation Doylestown into the future,” Davis said.